Surgical Instrument Care — Borrowing Surgical Instruments

Below are a few reasons why borrowing instruments from vendors is increasing:

Surgeons schedule specific types of procedures on the same day and the operating room might not have enough of the required instruments.

Training purposes that require a large quantity of instruments.

Lack of available storage space in the operating room or sterile processing department.

There are many challenges associated with management of borrowing surgical instruments. In some cases, instruments may arrive with no time to spare for inspection, cleaning, sterilization and other standards for appropriate tray preparation. This can result in inadequate surgical instrument sterilization which puts the patient at risk.